DVD Movie Review - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit leaves the Clancy novels behind and reboots the franchise with a fresh, likable lead.  Unfortunately, the movie travels down the overused action road of other spy films.

STORY:

Jack Ryan (Chris Pine), a bright young college student, joins the marines when the events of 9/11 affect him.  Ten years later, after serving in Afghanistan, Ryan falls in love with a doctor named Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley), while secretly being courted by Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) of the CIA.  After becoming part of Harper's team, Ryan discovers a Russian plot to attack America and sink the American dollar.  After being whisked away to the motherland, he comes to find out his days of sitting behind a desk are over and he's now a full-blown, gun-toting field operative.  Suspicious taxis, stolen dogs, unbelievable room renovations, light bulb torture, and bad cell connections ensue.

"...so then I said, 'Up yours, Mr. Spock!  I'll fly this frigging ship into the frigging sun, and there 

ain't a damn thing you can do about it.'"

THOUGHTS:

Shadow Recruit is not a bad spy film.  In fact, it resides in the upper echelons of acting, story and character.  The problem lies in all the films that have come before it.  Have you seen a kick-ass spy fighting in close quarters?  Yep.  Have you seen car chases before?  Hmm...yep.  Have you seen a bad guy being evil for the sake of being evil with little or no background story revealed?  Sadly...yes.  Well, then you've practically seen Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.  What you haven't seen is Chris Pine expertly playing the part of kick-ass spy.  And that's really the only ace in the hole the film has…besides Superman's dad being his mentor of course.

The beginning of the movie does a great job developing the lead character's goals, mistakes, and desires.  And starting with him being affected by 9/11 is a creative way to bring the series up to date and attract a younger audience to an older character.  But after all the conspiracy theories and traumatic war events, the film unleashes action sequences that feel stale considering the gigantic amount of similar movies before it.  During one sequence of events, the movie even resembles The Americans television show.  Which poses a question: Should the Russians be the bad guy?  The 80's ended decades ago.  Are we to believe evil lurks behind each and every one of those hilarious driving videos and clever Putin memes?  Maybe...maybe not.

"Holy crap.  Spicy tacos and whiskey do NOT mix."

Now, if you're the type expecting a full-on Jason Bourne experience, then you might be a tad disappointed.  Jack Ryan isn't a Johnny Martial-arts.  He's an analyst caught up in field operations.  So the first hour is back story, conspiracy theories, unintelligible banking-funds dialogue, and relationship problems.  Followed by a few dramatic action sequences and then more analyzing.  The good thing is once the action does start rolling, the film smartly decides to not just have the hero save the world, but also have a personal victory for him to overcome.  This allows the audience to relate to Ryan and helps escalate tension and suspense. 

"I couldn't stand it anymore...I love you.  And I'll always love you--"  

CUT!  This just isn't working.  Let's move them out into the rain where it'll be more dramatic.

THE ACTING:

First off, if you don't like Chris Pine, then there's really no reason to see this film.  Even if you've read all the Clancy novels and Jack Ryan is your favorite character of all time, because there are still only a few similarities to the books.  The movie, instead, creates a charismatic, gun-wielding marine veteran that has the chops to go up against Bond or Bourne, but will most likely get taken out by either.  Pine is the perfect actor for the reboot though, and you'll definitely enjoy the movie more if he's on your favorite actor list.  His delivery of dialogue and emotional reactions to the world around him are superb.  It's just too bad the Ryan character has been slightly watered-down and Bourne-updated for today's audiences.

Keira Knightley spends most of her time worrying.  But not about the end of the world or Russia trying to conquer the USA.  She's more worried that her love-bear might be cheating.  So she basically becomes the nagging and interfering girlfriend.  The one you told not to show up at your work because you know…you're working.  But she does so anyway and now you have to explain yourself and of course, balance work, her emotions, and the end of the world.  She does work through these stereotypical problems though, but there is a little matter of facial expressions.  It seems her jaw decided to have a mind of its own while filming.  During her close-ups you'll see her mouth deform, twist, and bend every which way that isn't humanly possible.  It's surprising the director didn't see this and attempt to lump her over the head a few times to correct these facial spasms.  Speaking of the director…

"Cut."  

"But Mr. Branagh, you've been staring for fifteen minutes and--"

"Shut up and rewind that for review.  I think my left eye twitched."

Kenneth Branagh plays Viktor Cherevin, the resident film baddie.  He broods, and tenses, and broods, and shoots things, and then broods some more.  Branagh's Russian sounds superb, at least to a non-Russian reviewer, but he really didn't add too much to the plot.  And that would be fine, if the film didn't ask you to care for him.  The ending tries to show a man grief stricken and depressed, and asks you to feel compassion.  But with little or no backstory, his last scene will probably make you laugh before you cry.

Kevin Costner is currently the all American dad.  He even helped raise an alien from Krypton once.  There is no one more ideal for the role of Thomas Harper, also known as Jack Ryan's CIA father figure.  The banter between Ryan and Harper becomes the film's slight humor relief and their scenes together are the most memorable.  Nonso Anozie from Game of Thrones fame and the Dracula TV series makes an appearance to show his awesome size and friendly demeanor.  And just about everyone else is cannon fodder that could and should be fired into a brick wall just for the sake of action and comedy.

"No...see, I don't think you understand the influence I have in Hollywood.  You know I 

died for Superman, right?"

CONCLUSION:

Contained within Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is an abundance of technical banking mumbo-jumbo, minor plot holes, spy movie clichés, and the extremely puzzling question: Does Russia really make sense as the bad guy?  If you think drama or espionage is completely boring and movies like Step Up are where it's at, then forget all about Jack Ryan.  But if you're in the mood for a little movie magic with Chris Pine and Kevin Costner showing you how it's done, then feel free to rent.  Either way, movie-goers looking for a solid spy thriller with a top-notch leading man are safe within this film's slightly unoriginal arms.

3.5 out of 5 Stars (minus 1 star for the action clichés and a ½ star for Keira’s jaw)